Google's New York offices latest to be invaded by bedbugs

The search giant's infestation was exposed by an employee's Tweet.

New York’s bedbug epidemic is beginning to take on biblical proportions: In addition to the more than 33,000 people who called the city's bedbug complaint line last year, the little pests have invaded a Victoria’s Secret, a couple of Abercrombie & Fitch locations, the Empire State Building, and the Time Warner Center, among others. Now MSNBC is reporting that Google's New York offices are also infested.

Word got out about the search giant's bug-ridden Chelsea offices when an alleged employee updated their Twitter account with, “jeepers i am not immune from the bedbug epidemic. bedbugs have been found at work."

While the offending Twitter account was promptly deleted, it may take Google slightly longer to rid its offices of creepy-crawlies. A spokeswoman for the company downplayed the situation, saying that bedbugs had been found in a small portion of the office, and that they were taking steps to treat the affected area.

It’s just another chapter in what has become an ongoing saga in New York and beyond. Outside of the Big Apple, Ohio has been the hardest hit states, going so far as to petition the EPA for an exemption to allow in-home use of propoxur, a highly toxic pesticide that has been banned for residential use since the 1990s. The Environmental Protection Agency rejected Ohio’s plea, but the agency did recently bring together state and municipal leaders, representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and even the Department of Defense, to work toward an abatement strategy.

Meanwhile, New York City has allocated $500,000 to spend on raising awareness of the tiny blood-sucking mites — though they seem to be doing a good job of that on their own.